December 25th at the burrow was always quite the affair, and this one was the most special of all because the whole family, plus Harry and Hermione, would be there for the first time in a long time and this year there was no Dark Lord Voldemort to bring everyone’s mood down. Harry had already finished his gift shopping, with a gift or two for everyone, but there was one person he had a gift for that wasn’t a physical gift as well as a few physical gifts.
Harry’s crush on a certain redheaded Weasley was not common knowledge, and the ones who did know were sworn to secrecy. That is until after Christmas night when Harry plans on asking them out in a very special way. He had a plan, some physical gifts, and a small speech, and hopefully then some sparks would fly. The thought of it made him sick, but he knew that it would all turn out how it was meant to.
Percy had been trying to decide if he even wanted to return to the burrow for Christmas, but he didn’t have an excuse to get him out of family time after the year they’ve had and he was informed that a certain raven haired, green eyed boy would be there by Hermione, the only one who knew of his crush on Harry. He had waited til after the war out of respect, and so Harry would have no distractions but now it’s after the war and Percy needs to know if the person who saved all of magic could ever be attracted to the middle child and most boring child of his surrogate family. Even if he was rejected he would feel better actually knowing he was being rejected. He hoped however that he had even just one small chance.
~0~
Harry had it all planned, he would give out the gifts, wait til just before dinner and pull Percy outside to ask if he would come back to his flat with him. There he would surprise him with spaghetti, red wine, the most divine garlic bread he could find, and then they would sit on the couch and Percy would open the three gifts he had gotten him as tokens of his desire to court the man. He wanted to do this properly, knowing exactly how important this step in the courting process was and he knew Percy would feel the same way, he just had to get him to agree to the courtship.
He knew from the twins that Percy had two secret obsessions, and one of them he had actually seen in person, although not in the most ethical of ways so he had to keep that a secret. Percy was obviously into books and knowledge, but there were two somewhat surprising things he learned about Percy in his careful examination of things. He was an amazing singer, but only when no one was around, otherwise his stage fright was severe, and Percy was actually pretty amazing at potions. He learned Percy had held a weekly private meeting with Snape to study potions.
That’s why he had three courting gifts, a standard wizard one that was a silver pocket watch that would tell the time til their next date and once they were engaged the time til their wedding date, following their wedding, if it ever got that far, it would show the days til their anniversary. It was actually very practical and sentimental. The second gift was a scale set along with a first edition copy of Potions for The Everyday Mundane, Humane, And Extraordinary with three self cleaning glass vials that sanitized themselves after a potion has been completely used. The third gift was actually the one Harry was hoping he’d love most. It was a poem he had written in his private poetry journal that no one knew he had and although it was not signed by Harry but rather his pen name it conveyed everything he felt.
Of course Christmas morning would have to begin at 6 am with the Weasley twin’s newest prank, a mini bomb that once exploded makes the most annoying sound a person has ever heard constantly ring in their ears for ten whole minutes, worse it made the noise different to each person based on their biggest sensory pet peeve. Once the ringing stopped presents are opened and the Weasley’s all play in the snow. After lunch Charlie and Hermione announce there is a wedding to be planned, and spend the afternoon snogging.
And then the moment comes, Molly is having Ginny and Ron set the table for dinner and Harry gently lays his hand on Percy’s arm, getting his attention and he motions to the back porch where they go and talk. “So I have another surprise for you but you’d have to trust me and to come with me...”
Percy hesitates, but only because he is determined not to shout “Yes!” like an idiot, he maintains composure as he nods. “Let me go tell Mum.” Percy steps back inside and although he can hear Molly start to argue he hears Hermione gently mention maybe just this one time it should be okay. Soon Percy takes Harry’s arm and the apparate onto the front step of Harry’s apartment.
“Okay, before we go inside I need to tell you that if you don’t want this or you don’t feel the same way, we never ever have to discuss this again and you can go home and we’ll go back to normal okay?” He smiles when Percy nods and they enter the flat.
But nothing ever goes the way that Harry plans, no matter how much detail went into it. But this time the flaw was something so strange not a single wizard would have thought it possible, a house elf had completely, 100%, destroyed the interior of his once clean flat, romantic dinner and all.
As they stepped through the front door Harry gasped when he looked around his flat. Although he’d deny it for years to come seeing his perfect date ruined brought tears to his eyes. There was absolutely nothing clean or in place at all in this flat, spaghetti sauce and red wine in the carpet and on the ceiling The table with the courting gifts knocked over, and laundry overtaking the couch, underwear on display along with socks and even his Christmas pajama pants made of fleece. The whole house is a mess and all Harry can do is stand and stare.
But Percy is no idiot, he knows the intention of the room and although neither of them is quite sure how it happened Percy doesn’t mind. “Harry I...”
“Don’t… It’s ruined now. You should just go home. I’m sorry.”
“Harry, I’m not leaving. I feel the same way. I have for almost a year. I waited til after the war but I was going to tell you tonight. I want to be with you, fancy dinner or not.”
“You know, some muggles get Chinese food on Christmas, we could always get take away and come back here, do a bit of cleaning, talk and you can open your courting gifts.”
“You got me courting gifts?” Percy sounds amazed and Harry simply blushes when he nods.
“Lets go, I know a great place.” And so they went, and although it was not the night Harry had planned, it was the best first date they could have had.